The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to the management of a plurality of system control networks each including information handling systems.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
A system control network may be made up of one or more servers, switches, and/or other IHSs. System control networks may be managed by a controller such as, for example, an Advanced Infrastructure Manager (AIM) controller available from Dell Inc., of Round Rock, Tex. A conventional AIM controller manages a system control network to provide an “AIM controller environment” within which the AIM controller may discover new servers and their capabilities, communicate status and configuration changes between the AIM controller and personas or virtual machines used in the AIM environment, connect servers to network storage devices that store the personas and virtual machine boot images, and/or to manage other aspects of how personas are configured, connected to virtual networks, provided on IHSs, etc.
Conventional system control networks have a scalability limit such that they cannot be scaled beyond a maximum data center size. However, service providers typically provide a plurality of system control networks that may be shared among their users. Each of those system control networks requires a respective AIM controller to provide a respective AIM controller environment, which can result in the need for hundreds of AIM controllers. Because each system control network/AIM controller environment is its own entity and unaware of other system control networks/AIM controller environments, the monitoring and controlling of elements across these disparate system control networks/AIM controller environments is done manually by an administrator, which is error prone and an inefficient use of the administrators time.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved system for managing a plurality of system control networks.